November 30, 2007

How To Make The Trillaneses Lose In The Elections

There really is no better time than now to show us that the mood to which we set our Elections will pretty much determine how the nation will run after the last vote has been cast. And as elections go in the Philippines, there’s just way too much drama engulfing the nation. From how the candidates are chosen by the parties, to how they make their political ads, their speeches and ultimately on how the voters decide who to vote — drama. No surprises then that we’re swallowed by this joke of a national soap.

Other than possible cheating (another facet of the electoral process anyway) what explains how a jailed soldier gets elected as a Senator? Oh yeah, that’s actually very simple: Drum up the frustration of the voters to the administration. Use the fact that said soldier bravely tried to unseat the president by staging a coup. Package him as a hero and lace him up in messiah ribbons. There, you got a shiny new Senator. There’s nothing like touching the Filipino heart to get to a government office.

This is precisely the reason why I vomit when I see people making decisions based on emotions. I couldn’t imagine how anything good will come out of that decision making philosophy – be it at work or for the national interest. Emotions are good but when you use it to determine your business or nation’s fate it can get really messy. Here’s to a nation raised by ABS-CBN and GMA 7! After all, weren’t these two networks responsible for injecting drama in our households? Remember being held hostage by your nannies while they watch Anna Luna, Mara Clara, Flor DeLuna or whatever Maria Somethings that they come up with? Is it really too much to link these two? I think not. The api mentality has got to come from somewhere or at the very least these soaps amplify its national presence. No surprise then that our national spouting is nothing else but that: dramatic garbage.

Typical and tired as it may sound, media has got to do some additional due diligence on how they treat Elections coverage. This will create the biggest initial impact on how leaders are selected in the Philippines. Simplistic yeah, but don’t forget that we are also a nation of short collective memories. The 8 weeks leading to the elections are very crucial on how Filipinos choose our leaders. If during the several weeks of media coverage leading to the elections, real issues, qualifications and solid platforms are what media highlights and puts under scrutiny as opposed to popularity ratings and heart wrenching life stories – during those weeks we’ll have set our people in a better position in choosing the right leaders. Give the Filipino brain a feast. That’s how we get good leaders!

Let’s not fall to the trap of the drama of Political Sloganeering like “this candidate is a housewife who knows what mothers want for the country” or “this candidate is a teacher and will teach the nation ABC,” or whatever puke inducing campaigns they come up with. Since we all know it’s BS anyway, let’s just not give the candidates the chance to harp on the national weakness on drama. The moment they try, cut to commercial. Knowing the candidates’ propensity to crutching to dramatics during their campaign, that would translate to lots of commercials for the networks.

Here’s to hoping that once this is done, we won’t have Senators with egos bigger than the national interest and also in this case bigger than the law and judicial system. There is something awfully wrong with a Senator who squeezes his way out of contempt of court by staging a coup! Let this be, the worst that it could get. As a nation we’ve been dragged with way too much drama already. At some point it has got to stop. And this is that point in time where we stop and actually change things. We’ve had our drama fix, now let’s get our brains to work.